I See You by Clare Mackintosh

“We are all creatures of habit. Even you. You reach for the same coat every day; leave home at the same time every morning. You have a favorite seat on the bus or the train…. I know you buy the same paper from the same shop, your milk at the same time each week. I know the way you walk the children to school; the shortcut you take on your way home from Zumba class. I know all these things, because it’s never occurred to you that anyone is watching you. Routine is comforting to you. It’s familiar, reassuring. Routine makes you feel safe. Routine will kill you.”

The start of this book grabbed me and I settled in thinking “oooooo this is going to be a good one!” I for one, am most definitely a creature of habit so the premise of this book put me on edge when I started to think about how predictable my own routine is. Couple that with social media and how easy it is to have access to anyone and their information these days and I thought for sure this would be a 5 star read. Every few chapters we get a glimpse into the thoughts of the mastermind behind everything – this set a creepy and ominous tone and I loved it. But then things just fell apart. The more I read, the more I did not like Zoe Walker. I felt that she was very underdeveloped for a main character. I know that I was supposed to be in great suspense the more paranoid Zoe became, but instead I found myself getting aggravated with her. By the middle of the book I felt like things were just dragging, so much so that I started skimming (this is never a good sign). I will say that I loved the character of Kelly, the detective and found her back story much more intriguing. Strong, flawed, struggling with decisions from her past, I felt like Kelly would have been a much better focal point for the story.

I had the killer partially figured out but struggled with the end. I don’t want to give anything away, so I will just say it did not seem to me that the killer would have gone to such great lengths for the reason that was given as the motive behind everything. It just fell flat to me. I had such high hopes for this one because I loved I Let You Go so very much, but this just didn’t deliver for me. 3 out of 5 stars. Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.